False attribution in media on the Yarlung Tsangpo dam projects

When you work with media, there is the risk of being quoted out of context. Sometimes it can be worse: you will be attributed to having said things you have not. Such an incident occurred with me recently.

I was approached by Richard Finney, an editor at the Radio Free Asia, about concerns on the Zangmu dam project on the Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra river.

I e-mailed back saying:
"Zangmu and other dams they are currently building on the mainstream of the Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra river are run-off-river projects so it may seem like, as several Indian leaders seem convinced, that these will not impact flow into India. However, the concern is not about one or two dams but [that] a series of dams will be built on the river. No one knows how all of these dams will cumulatively affect the river's environmental flow, especially given the uncertainties of climate change impacts on the glaciers that feed these rivers."

However, Finney's published article, "Concerns Arise Over China's Dam Building Drive in Tibet", published on 17 April 2013, quotes me as having said:
"The Zangmu and other dams planned for the Yarlung Tsangpo will not make use of reservoirs."

As readers can see, I did not say that the planned dams will not use reservoirs. I said that the dams they are currently building are run-off-river projects. There's a big difference between projects currently under construction, which we know from reports that these are run-off-river projects, and other planned projects, the technical details of which are unknown.

I have requested Richard Finney to rectify the false attribution. Let's see what can be done.

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Richard Finney apologized and made changes to the original news story.